CASTLETON, Vt. – The Spartans put forth their best shooting effort of the season and shut down the New England College offense to remain unbeaten on the season with an 84-56 victory on Thursday evening at Glenbrook Gymnasium.
In a battle between two conference unbeaten squads, Castleton established their supremacy by shooting 66.7 percent in the first half and allowing NEC just ten field goals to take a 27-point halftime lead. The Spartans never let the Pilgrims get close in the second as they improved to 13-0 on the season and a perfect 6-0 in North Atlantic Conference play. The loss dropped New England College to 11-3 and 6-1 in the NAC.
The Spartans finished the game at an even 60.0 percent from the field, their best performance of the season. Defensively they held the Pilgrims to 32.3 percent shooting, forced 22 turnovers and outrebounded them 41-34.
Freshman Stephanie Linder was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field and finished with a career-high 17 points. She also added six rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block. Alyssa Leonard added 13 points and six boards while Meghan O'Sullivan andTarryn Bolognani each chipped in with 10 apiece. Liz Douglass added six points, five assists and four rebounds off the bench.
Taylor Burgess led NEC with 14 points and five rebounds but shot just 5-for-16 from the field. Markey Flewelling added 12 points on four triples off the bench and Kayla Lawlor scored 11 points with four assists and three steals.
Castleton came out firing and locked down on defense as the team jumped out to an 11-0 lead, the final bucket coming on a layup by Linder with 16:31 remaining. NEC scored four straight to cut the deficit to seven, but the Spartans pushed their lead out to 23-10 at the 11:57 mark. Back-to-back threes from Flewelling cut it to seven once again, 23-16.
The Pilgrims wouldn't get any closer than seven again as Castleton went on a 9-2 run to make it 32-18 with 7:21 left in the half. The Spartans kept pressuring NEC outscored the Pilgrims 12-2 over the final four minutes, ending the half on a 27-7 run to go into the break with 52-25 lead.
In the second half, NEC came out of the locker room determined to make a comeback. Led by seven straight points by Burgess, the Pilgrims cut the lead to 20 with 16:27 remaining in the game.
The Spartans answered the NEC run by pounding the ball inside, with Linder and Shelby LaBarge getting easy layups from the low block to extend the Castleton lead back to 25. Castleton was effective within the lane all night, outscoring NEC 52-18 from within the lane.
With 11:28 remaining, Lawlor drained a three-pointer, bringing the Pilgrims back to within 21 points of the lead, but the Spartans countered with a 10-0 run, stretching the lead to 73-42 with 7:00 remaining, and never looked back.
The win improves Castleton's record to 13-0 on the year, and stretches the Spartans' winning streak at home to 16 straight games. They travel to Colby-Sawyer on Saturday, January 12 to take on the Chargers at 1 p.m.